Phonograph



Aug. 29, 1933.

L. L. JONES ET AL PHONOGRAPH Filed Feb. 19

' INVENTORS Lesrer L.Jo nes BY Thomas .Puazze Patented Aug. 29, 1933 PHONOGRAPH Lester L. Jones, Oradell, N. J., and Thomas E. Plane, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignors to Technidyne Corporation, New York, N. Y., a Corporation of New York Application February 19, 1929. No. 341,080

7Claims.

manually or automatically. Broadly, we have found that we can attainthis object by guiding the record from the upright or inclined position into a horizontal position in order to obtain air cushioning'beneath the record as it falls.

' Further objects of our invention are to provide suitable means for constrainingly guiding the record from an upright or inclined position into the horizontal position; to provide for and to facilitate the removal of the used records from the magazine; and to adapt our inventionfor use in an automatic phonograph such as has been decribed in copending applications of Lester L. Jones, Serial Numbers 341,076, 341,077, 341,078, all filed concurrently herewith.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and such other objects as will hereinafter appear, our invention 'consists in the automatic phonograph elements and their relation one to the other, 's hereinafter are more particularly described and sought to be deflned'in the claims; reference being had to the accompanying drawing showing a preferred embodiment of our invention, in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the magazine showing its situation relative to the ejector mechanism;

Fig-2 is a horizontal .section of the magazine 40 taken on theline 22in'Fig.1;and

Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the line 3-3 in Fig. 1.

The primary object of our invention is to ease the fall of a record into a record magazine, which," in accordance with our invention, we do by guid-' ing the record into a horizontal position asjt drops .intothe magazine. With a magazine of reasonably limited lateral dimensions we flnd that by this means we are able to obtain an appreciable amount of air cushioning beneath the falling record.

Ordinarilyarecordisfedtoamagazinein a substantially upright or in an inclined posi-' tion, and therefore it is another object of our invention to guide or direct the record into a horizontal position beforev letting it fall into the magazine. While it is possible to employ a relatively long chute which changes from an upright to a horizontal direction, such a chute necessi-v tates that the discard magazine be located at a: considerable distance from the point of entrance of the chute. We have devised an arrangement which causes the desired change in position of the record in a very simple and very compact manner and this arrangement is best described by reference to the drawing, in which it will be seen that the record magazine, generally designated by the numeral 2, has an entrance at one -side thereof numbered 6. :Afiixed within the magazine adjacent the entrance is a curved 79 guide, which preferably takes the form of a sector of an annular member, or more specifically, the semi-circular ring 8. The diametenof this ring is made slightly greater than that of the records to be inserted in the magazine, as is best shown in Fig. 2 of the drawing. when the record enters the magazine it first meets and is supported by the center portion of the ring, and it thereafter slides along the ring, being supported at points at the extremities of an always increasingly larger chord thereof. The record assumes a more and more nearly horizontal position, as is indicated by the broken line positions thereof shown in Fig. 1, until finally when it has glided to practically a horizontal position it drops through the ring and into the magazine, the air trapped beneath the record serving to effectively cushion its impact.

While the record magazine so far described may be used with any kind of automatic machine, and even for manually inserted records,

ferred to. Such a phonograph employs a record turntable which is tilted to an upright position when the record is to be ejected therefrom; the record being released from the centering pin of the turntable by ejector arms which push the record away from the turntable." To apply our invention to such a phonograph it is merely necessary to position the magazine in subjacent juxtaposition to the record turntable and ejector mechanism, indicated generally by the numeral 4 in Fig. 1, when the turntable has been tilted to its discharge position. The dislodged record falls by gravity a shortdistance until its lowermost edge reaches the center portion of the ring 8, after which the record glides intoa horizontal 110 position and drops into the magazine in the man- Y ner already described.

The records being fed to the magazine must be removed occasionally, and to provide for this removal of records is a further object of our invention. 'To avoid the complexity .of using a drawer weobtain access to the magazine by making one side thereof in the form of a door. This dooris numbered 10, and is clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing. It is provided with a knob 12, or other suitable means by which it v may be opened. It preferably is hinged at a point 16-which is an appreciable distance below the bottom 18 of the magazine, the forward edge of which, that is, the edge adjacent the door 10, is recessed-as at 14, and this recess, together with the clearance provided by the lowered hinge of the door 10, enables the records in the magazine to be readily grasped and removed. The recess 14' should not be made so large as to destroy the air cushioning effect, although if the region beneath the magazine is small and closed the size of the recess is not very material.

It will be apparent that while 'we have shown and described our invention in the preferred form, many changes and modifications may be made in, the structure disclosed without departing from the spirit'of the invention, defined in the following claims.

What we claim '5:

1. An automatic phonograph comprising a record turntable, a discard magazine for storing the records in a horizontal position, meansfor ejecting a record fro'm'the table to the magazine in a substantially upright position, and means to j posited into the opening from an upright position into a horizontal position whereby the subserecords in a horizontal position, and means for guiding the record-from the vertical to' ahorizontal position. I

v '3. The combination with anautomatic phonograph arranged to eject used records from the record turntable in a substantially upright position, of a discard magazine for storing the used records in a horizontal position, and means for guiding a record from the vertical to a'horizontal position comprising an approximately semi-circular ring horizontally positioned at the entrance to the' magazine.

. 4. In an automatic phonograph arranged to substantially upright position, a discard magazine for storing the used records in a horizontal position, means at the entrance of themagazine for guiding the record from the vertical to a horizontal position, a door for access to the forward side of the magazine, and a bottom having a recessed forward edge to facilitate removal of the records.

5. A discard magazine for phonograph records comprising a compartment for receiving and storing a plurality of records in vertically stacked relation, the lateral dimensions of the compartment being related to the diametrical dimensions of the record so that an air pocket is formed beneath a record descending into the compartment in a horizontal position, a record entrant opening in said compartment and means associated with said opening for automatically constrainingly guiding a'record deposited from an upright position into the opening into a horizontal position whereby. the subsequent descent of the record into the compartment is cushioned by the air therebeneath.

6. A discard magazine for phonograph records comprising -'a compartment for receiving and storing a plurality of records in vertically stacked relation, the lateral dimensions of the compartment being substantially the same as the diametrical dimensions of the record so that an air pocket is formed beneath a record descending into the compartment in a' horizontal position, a record entrant opening adjacent the top of said compartment and means associated: with said opening for constrainingly directing a record dequent descent of the record into the compartment is cushioned by the air therebeneath, the said means comprising a section of an annular member positioned at the said entrant opening of the partment and means associated with said opening, for receiving a record deposited into the compartment in a substantially upright position and for automatically constrainingly directing the record so deposited into a horizontal position,

ioned by the air pocket therebeneath.

\ LESTER L. JONES.

THOMAS E. PIAZZE.

'. whereby the record is conditioned to fall within the compartment in a horizontal position cush- 

